Making a Language One’s Own That is Not One’s Own: Mahesh Dattani’s Tryst with English

Mahesh Dattani is credited with giving visibility to ‘invisible issues’, long hidden in closet andtabooed. However more commendable is his achievement in negotiating with the language forexpressing his creativity. There is no hesitation in admitting that despite prevalence of rich regionaltheatre, writing in English rather theatre in English remained marginalized till very recently.Writing in English undoubtedly gave wide audience and readership but also made one susceptibleto questions on one’s identity. English, after all, is a colonial language and synonymous withWestern civilization. It was tool to control, manipulate and efface the culture of the colonized; afear and apprehension expressed eloquently by Ngugi wa Thiong’O. Thus anything remotelyconnected to colonizers was met with resistance. Colonial and postcolonial India addressed thisproblem by returning to their roots to assert their ‘Indianness’. In drama it manifested in the birthof ‘theatre of roots’ in a big way. English as the ‘Other’ evoked ambivalent response from writersof all genres. It is against such strident posturing that Mahesh Dattani need to be understood for aproper appraisal. His chosen language was English and sprinkling with cultural nuances aptl